Project Grant 2218542

This five-year, $283,849 National Science Foundation Project Grant under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) will fund research at Brown University to develop a new framework for interpreting mantle deformation through an integrated approach combining theory, experiments, and observations across seismic to convective timescales. Key products include observational work characterizing frequency-dependent upper-mantle dissipation in three locations using seismic and geodetic data; experimental work investigating how dislocations affect transient creep under varying conditions; and modeling work developing new constitutive laws for transient creep and incorporating more sophisticated rheologies into viscoelastic deformation software. Broader impacts include educating four graduate and six undergraduate students, convening a 120-person synthesis workshop, and developing open-source Jupyter notebooks on seismic attenuation and transient rheology. The award supports the NSF's mission to advance fundamental geoscience knowledge through basic research.